
<blockquote class='quote-from-book'>	<p><span class='ic'>“</span>When arabic numerals joined the roman alphabet, they too were given both lowercase and uppercase forms. Typographers call the former <cite>text figures</cite>, <cite>hanging figures</cite>, <cite>lowercase figures</cite>, or <cite>old-style figures</cite> <span class='bracket'>(</span>OSF for short<span class='bracket'>)</span> and make a point of using them whenever the surrounding text is set in lowercase letters or small caps. The alternative forms are called <cite>titling figures</cite>, <cite>ranging figures</cite> or <cite>lining figures</cite>, because they range or align with the upper&nbsp;case.<br />
<span class='bracket'>[</span>…<span class='bracket'>]</span><br />
<span class='bracket'>[</span>Text figures<span class='bracket'>]</span> are basic parts of typographic speech, and they are a sign that dollars are not really twice as important as ideas, and numbers are not afraid to consort on an equal footing with words. <span class='bracket'>[</span>…<span class='bracket'>]</span> However common it may be, the use of titling figures in running text is illiterate: it spurns the truth of letters.”</p>
 </blockquote>
	<p>Many core web fonts <span class='bracket'>(</span>indeed most digital fonts<span class='bracket'>)</span> ship with only one case of figures: Arial, Comic Sans, Helvetica, Tahoma, Times, Times New Roman, Trebuchet and Verdana all ship with titling figures only. Georgia is the sole holder of text figures <span class='bracket'>(</span>but lacks titling&nbsp;figures<span class='bracket'>)</span>.</p>

	<p>Microsoft’s new ‘C’ fonts however, are very strong with respect to their numerals. All six typefaces <span class='bracket'>(</span>including the fixed-width Consolas<span class='bracket'>)</span> have both titling and text figures included in the base fonts. Further, three of the fonts default to titling figures <span class='bracket'>(</span>Calibri, Cambria, and Consolas<span class='bracket'>)</span>, the other three to text figures <span class='bracket'>(</span>Candara, Constantia, and Corbel<span class='bracket'>)</span>. Constantia and Corbel even include small variants of their lining figures for use with text set in small&nbsp;capitals.</p>

	<p>Despite the bright hope for the future brought by Microsoft’s ‘C’ fonts, <abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr> currently makes no provision for the control of numeral case, this means the default figures will always be used, regardless of&nbsp;context.</p>

	<h2>The&nbsp;Future</h2>

	<p>The <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-fonts/"><abbr>CSS3</abbr>&nbsp;fonts module</a> is still a working draft, but is being actively revised. The current <a href="http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-fonts/">editor’s draft</a> includes a proposal for supporting specification of lining or old-style numbers through the <code>font-variant-numeric</code>&nbsp;property.</p>

	<p>For example, one could specify old-style figures using the <code>oldstyle-nums</code> value as&nbsp;follows:</p>

<pre><code>p {
  font-variant-numeric: oldstyle-nums;
}</code></pre>

	<p>To specify titling figures, one would use a value of <code>lining-nums</code>.</p>
 